80 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. PALMA, 
Thrinax is confined to the New World. Three species inhabit southern Florida ;* and five or 
six species, still imperfectly known, are scattered through the Antilles and on the shores of Central 
America.” 
The wood of the Florida species of Thrinax is light and soft, and contains numerous small fibro- 
vascular bundles, the exterior of the stem being much harder than the spongy interior. The stems are 
used for the piles of small wharves and for turtle crawls, and the leaves are employed as thatch and are 
manufactured into hats and baskets, and coarse ropes. 
The generic name from Opiva€ is in allusion to the form of the leaves. 
1 For the third Florida species, Thrinax microcarpa, see x. 58, t. 2 See Roemer & Schultes, Syst. vii. pt. ii. 1300. — Martius, Nat. 
511, where the fruit is described as orange-brown in color with a Hist. Palm. iii. 254.— Grisebach, Fl. W. Ind. 515 ; Cat. Pl. Cub. 
erustaceous pericarp, the true characters of the fully ripe fruit 221. 
being then unknown to me (see Sargent, Bot. Gazette, xxvii. 87). 
SYNOPSIS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 
Flowers long-pedicellate; perianth obscurely lobed or nearly truncate; filaments subulate, hardly united 
atgtbesbasc-sstioma Obiiqueljes: sss) irre a ge es eee er a ee eer eee ee ee LOR ED ANTS 
Flowers short-pedicellate; perianth lobes broadly ovate, acute; filaments nearly triangular, united below 
into a cup adnate to the perianth; stigma flat. 
Seeds three sixteenths of an inch in diameter, pale chestnut-brown; leaves from three to four feet in 
diameter . Ma Se Se a eer ge Ug Pa yey ON aes ae ee cea Ee ne 2. T. Keyvensts. 
Seeds from one sixteenth to one eighth of an inch in di ter, dark chestnut-brown; leaves two feet 
TH CIBC er Ob Weds ee ee ee a eee ee bw ene ae a eo MOC ee 
